Give Me Some Sugar
by ThomE.Gemcity-06
Summary: SEQEUL 2: "Tainted Sugar". Steve is bored and of course, Danny pays the price. But the make up is always better after the fight.


**Sequel to "** _ **Tainted Sugar"**_

 **a/n: So, it's been a while since I added to the SUAGR series, but I came up with a few ideas. And I have come to the decision of keeping this pre-slash/platonic between McDanno. Honestly, I kind of just want to see them bromance it out and cuddle. So, they're very intimate in a platonic manner and very comfortable with each other physically.**

 **Summary:** Steve is bored and of course, Danny pays the price. But the make up is always better after the fight.

 **HAWAII . FIVE - 0**

* * *

 **Give Me Some Sugar**

Danny flipped the finished form over on the done pile and started to fill out the next. It was quiet and calm at HQ and-

 _Boink!_

"That the-!" The blond flinched at the unexpected contact, smoothing a hand over the back of his head.

He turned in the wheeled chair where he sat at the meeting table in Five-0's open conference room adjacent to the ops center, and paused at the sight of the black tile underfoot surrounding his chair littered with silver paperclips and rubber bands. But the culprit for his current attention was the small pink eraser.

"Um..." he was at a momentary loss for how this could have happened without his notice, before that was put aside to the obvious revelation of the perpetrator to the carnage around his seat. "Steven." He uttered under his breath, keen eyes flitting over the empty ops center for said man.

The cousins had the day. The Governor's Five-0 Task Force was always on-call, but it was Danny and Steve's turn to man the office if such a call came that put them on-duty. And what else was there to do on a quiet day than take advantage of the quiet and catch up on the backlog of paperwork? It was a very important part of police work, but he was the only one in his partnership that clearly thought so.

"Steven J. McGarrett," Danny rose his voice without yelling or shouting, but his tone put on the authority of his Father-Voice. Something that he seemed to use more on his best-friend and partner than he did on his own daughter. God, Grace was definitely an angel that God had mistakenly sent him but he was keeping her anyway, damn him to hell. "Get out here this instant." Silence met his directive, but he knew the SEAL was there. "You have to the count of five." He inhaled. "One."

Steve's bodiless snort reached him from somewhere to the left. "Counting, really?" he mocked.

"Two." Was Danny's smart retort.

"I'm not a child," Steve told him like a petulant child, still refusing to come out. "I'm a grown man. I lead a task force and carry a gun."

Danny let the smirk flicker over his lips before he schooled his features. "Three."

Steve's huff was audible.

" _Four_." Danny said in a warning tone.

There was an amused up tick to the corners of Danny's mouth that matched the quiet amusement in his blue-eyes, his hands clasped casually at his stomach with his elbows on the armrests as he watched. Just as predicted, Steve stepped out from the blindspot in the turn of the short corridor that led to the partners' respective offices just before the final count of five.

His chin was held high, his hands out of sight behind his back as he rocked back on his heels. "Is there something I can assist you with, Daniel?" He quirked a brow in inquiry.

Danny gave a silent snort at that. Unsurisingly it'd be his wet dream if his obstinate partner did the paperwork without a fuss. "Join me. Have a seat, won't you?" he made an open gesture to the table as he turned back in his chair.

He only had to wait a beat before Steve came back into view, his fingers squeaking along the smooth surface of the table as he walked the length and flopped sulkily into the chair at the opposite end. It was like watching a rebellious teenager in a mood at being in detention; sprawled back, boots thrown onto the corner of his table. The tiny plastic container of office sundries in the V of his lap that he'd been hiding behind his back; the hand in cookie jar.

"Let's just start with the obvious and _most_ concerning aspect of this incident," Danny moved his clasped hand onto the edge of the table and gave his partner a disappointed headshake. "Your aim is terrible!"

Steve spluttered in surprise. He'd been expecting something else entirely. "Practice makes perfect," he mumbled.

"Sorry. What was that?" he put his hand mockingly behind his ear. "Didn't quite catch that, mumbles."

"Practices makes." Steve repeated. He picked out an elastic and stretched it around his gun-shaped fingers. He squinted his eye as he aimed at the detective and then released. The elastic plinked off Danny's tie near the knot. "Case. Point." He made a drop-the-mic. gesture.

"Tie abuse!" Danny accused, hand smoothing down said tie. "And you, you will put someone's eye out. And all indications with the past point it towards being _mine eye._ " He picked up the elastic from his papers and without the showmanship, simply stretched it back and released.

Steve jolted as the elastic struck him on the forehead in perfect aim. "How-?" he rubbed his forehead.

"Your technique needs improvement, babe." Danny smirked. "I used to work in a police bullpen, remember? There was days like these then, too. Not everything is shark-cages and stand-offs."

"Uhh!" Steve bemoaned at the reminder, stretching and unstretching the same elastic returned to him. "I'm so bored, Danno!"

"You could always fill that boredom with paperwork," he suggest without much hope.

"Sorry, what was that? Didn't quite catch it," Steve parroted his earlier mocking comeback.

Danny rolled his eyes. "So you'd rather some poor schmuck gets murdered so you won't be bored anymore? That's called being a Grade A Asshole,"

"It doest _have_ to be murder," was the petulant rejoinder.

"Babe," Danny shook his head with a sigh. "That's just asking for trouble. Like saying: 'At least it's not raining.' Though I guess you'd just say that for the fun of it. It's like a shark that'll die if you stop swimming. But do you have to fill your tedium with a mess?—that I will _not_ be cleaning up, by the way." He waged a finger at the man, "Instead, help me with these so when we _do_ get a case, you'll have more free time to go on one of your Procedure Dismissive BINGO Rampages."

"This is the most animated I've seen you all day!" Steve said with a grin. "It's like watching a flower wilt without the sun. Gotta have those rant-rays,"

"Oh, so I reference you being a shark and you return the favour by calling me a _flower_?" Danny huffed in offence, hand on his chest. "Unbelievable! So being productive and responsible is still out of the question, huh?" In response, Steve smacked his lips and turned his attention to his lap. "Then I tap out." He stood. "And I am really not cleaning up your mess this time, Wall-E."

Steve pulled out a long elastic from the container and started randomly stretching it to the limits and shortening it jerkily, as Danny bent over the table and started to gather up his paperwork.

"You know, for a guy whipped into shape by the Army," Danny murmured, "You sure lack discipline."

"Navy, Danno." Steve dropped his feet and sat up, twitching the itch from his nose.

"Either. Or." Danny gave the man a sly smirk.

"No either. Or... or." Steve replied, the elastic stretched. "It just i—CHOO!" the unexpected sneeze took the man by surprise, the elastic released and going wide.

"Yo- JESUS CHRIST!" Danny's laughing retort was cut off with a shout. He dropped the papers and clapped both hands over his left eye. "Mother-!"

"Danny? Danny!" Steve jumped to his feet, the container clattered on the floor, its contents exploding in every direction. Even before it was at a standstill, Steve was at the blond's side. "What happened? Are you okay?" he demanded, a tight hand squeezing the man's shoulder in worry.

"Agh! What happened?!" he repeated. "You shot me in the eye, jackass! What do you think happened?"

"God, Danny. I didn't mean to." Steve's voice was already dripping with guilt and worry. "Sit. Sit."

"I said this would happen. I called it. Told you straight out, but did I listen to myself?" he was more ranting to himself now, his fingers leaving dents in his brow as it caged the injured organ. It burned and it stung, he could feel it watering profusely, the tears trailing down his left cheek. "I let my guard down, let the quiet lull me. Should have known better with you, animal. There you were poking the hornets nest!"

"Do you honestly think I did this on purpose? I sneezed, Danny!" Steve protested. "Sit and let me see." He pushed the blond back down into his chair. "Are you sure it hit you in the eye?"

"Am I sure, he says?" he gave a sarcastic chuckle. "Pretty damn sure. This feels worse than when you shot pineapple juice in my face."

"I didn't think you'd just _stand_ there," Steve protested.

"I didn't think you'd _actually_ do it." Danny returned. "I didn't think you'd shoot an elastic in my eye either."

"Danny," Steve's voice was strained.

Danny gave a groan in frustration. "Alright, fine, have big old gander, SuperSEAL. Don't tell me... they trained you for this, too, didn't they?" he leaned his head back against the rest and forced his hands away from the injury. "Well?" he asked as he felt Steve loom over him more than saw him. "Am I disfigured?" there was a slight shaky base to his question as he felt Steve's calloused palm on his forehead, his thumb petting his brow in a soothing rhythm. "Am I maimed?" he tried to joke when he still didn't get a response from the brunette. "It feels like it. Steve?"

"Danno..." Steve started. There was no denying that the elastic had hit its unintended target.

"Oh, god!" Danny interrupted him before he could go on. "I am, aren't I?" he cursed in panic, arching off the chair even as Steve's hold kept him there. He scrambled to grab the other man's wrist. "It's all blurry. I can't even see you. That can't be good. Steve—" he panted. "I don't want silence from your right now. I need you to use your words right now, you Neanderthal. Speak them!"

"Stand up, come on." Steve ordered him. And Danny complied from the sheer sudden change of tone from guilt-ridden to command. Steve's hands never left him. "I'll call Chin so he can cover us."

"Oh, god." Danny noted, turning to look at the man more out of his right side as Steve guided him towards the exit. "You're being gentle and following procedure. That's never good."

"What do you mean?" Steve tried for light as he locked up. "I'm always gentle and follow procedure."

Danny let out an incredulous laugh as they rode the elevator; he didn't even want to try the stairs right now. "Did that sneeze of yours cause a brain bleed or something, buddy? You're not sounding yourself right now."

Danny's left hand went back to caging his eye in a sort of protection gesture; it probably did nothing, but it made him feel better. Steve had his own gesture, always touching Danny in some form (a hand on his shoulder or the small of his back) as they made for the Camaro. Danny was pretty sure he could walk on his own, but if it worked to help ease Steve then he was for it. And if it also comforted him a little, only he need know. Besides, he couldn't help be worried himself; he'd never had an _**eye**_ injury before. Gunshot wounds, torn ACL, concussions, cracked ribs etc., but never his _**eye**_.

"When it comes to you, I'm always myself," Steve muttered quietly, the clap of the car doors drowning out the sentiment.

At least Steve let him get into the damn car by himself. "So, this should be very exciting for you, Steven." Danny drawled as Steve pulled from the lot. "It might not be murder, or robbery, but at least it's not paperwork."

"I would prefer that to this," Steve uttered.

"I'm sorry, I think my hearing's affected." Danny said sarcastically. "Did Mister I'm-better-than-this just say he would rather be doing paperwork than driving his partner to the E.R.? Huh? Too bad that conclusion couldn't have been drawn ten minutes ago! Oh! Maybe you can make a time machine with all those paper clips and elastics that you were happily throwing at me."

"Alright! Alright." Steve stopped him. "I shouldn't have been screwing around."

"This is a day for the record books, ladies and gentlemen." Danny announced. "Now call Chin, days off are for dreamers anyway." As Steve set to that, Danny searched his glove compartment and found a small packet of pocket tissues. He pulled down the passenger visor, but purposefully aimed it low, and mopped his cheek of the tears that were still coming.

" _Hey, Steve._ " Chin answered. " _What's up? We got a case?"_

"Robocop wishes." Danny muttered.

Chin heard him on speakerphone. " _Hey, brah. Howzit? Boss behaving himself?"_ he mused good-naturedly.

Danny gave a short laugh at that. "If you're getting a call, something's gone amiss."

" _Oh, no."_

"Can I speak please?" Steve wondered, voicing for the first time since the call was picked up. His grip on the wheel was tight, showing his stress. "This is my call,"

Danny gestured at him. "Go ahead, babe. Love it when you take control."

Chin's chuckle came through the line.

"Chin, sorry to do this, brother." Steve shot Danny a withering look. "But I need you to cover for us. We're driving to the E.R. right now."

" _E.R.?"_ Chin's tone instantly went from humorous to concerned. " _What happened_?"

Steve opened his mouth to reply, but Danny beat him to the punch line. "He maimed me."

"Danny!" Steve protested, even as he went through another guilt crash. His foot pressed a little more on the peddle in physical response.

"Well, it's true. Chin deserves to the truth for why we're ruining his day off."

"You're just trying to garner sympathy. Get him on your side." Steve was petulant.

"One look at me and he's on my side!" Danny waved a damp tissue at his face. He still hadn't the guts to see what damage the SEAL had done that actually caused them the straight-away trip to the E.R.

" _That's bad luck, brah."_ Chin did sympathize.

"Not bad luck, Chin." Danny countered haughtily. "Just Steve."

Steve sputtered. "Wha- Mother Nature." He countered.

Now Danny scoffed, incredulous. "Mother Nature. Mother Nature, he says. Do Tell."

"I sneezed. It wasn't my fault?"

" _Sneeze_?" Chin wondered, but was ignored.

"Do you hear that, Chin? I got taken out with a sneeze, but it wasn't the producer's fault." Danny mocked his partner. "When you get to the scene of the crime, if you run into Mother Nature, do me a favour? Arrest the Old Biddy. I would love to have some words with her, see if these two's stories match up, huh."

 _"Brah, that's harsh."_ Chin reasoned rationally, " _You can't make enemies out of everyone."_

"Not me, Chin. I've just contracted them from Steve like a virus."

"Contracted? Virus?" Steve chuffed in offence. "You're the one who keeps crawling into my bed!"

"Well, see if that ever happens again!" Danny shouted back in anger.

" _Alright. Ladies._ " Chin halted further argument and unintended hurt with a cool, even voice. And utterly ignore the sleeping together prospect. " _I'm heading in now. Hope everything's OK. Call me and let me know."_

Steve took a deep inhale, now feeling guilty over something else, and turned his attention back to the road. "Thanks, Chin. Sorry about this."

"When you get there, prepare yourself," Danny joked, trying to lighten the tense atmosphere of the Camaro, the situation leaving their nerves raw and vulnerable to antagonism. "It's one hell of a messy scene."

" _Alright, brothers."_ Chin gave a light chuckle. " _Stay safe, you two."_ He disconnected.

Steve kept shooting him glances, having hung up with Chin. "Danny, I di-"

"I know. Me, too." He said. Danny took a deep breath and adjusted the visor. "Jeez!" Danny grimaced as he caught sight of his eye. It was half-lidded, blood vessels burst, still watering. Burning. It was not a very pretty sight. It was like he tried to Hulk-out, but his eye took the brunt of it. "You've failed at trying to kill during our partnership thus far, but I'm pretty sure you're aces at maiming me."

Steve cringed. "I'm sure it'll be fine." He finally pulled into the lot at Queen's Medical.

"It better be!" Danny told him, slamming the car door. He found Steve there again with a guiding hand, that Danny wanted to a little, a lot, bite off as they made for the clinic. "Because don't think I won't take _your_ pretty little eye." He knew right now that this was going to put him on desk-duty for at least a couple days and he was not going to be a happy camper about it.

 **-xH50x-**

"Ugh. Would you stop it already?" Danny demanded tiredly.

As predicted, there was a wait that not even Steve's demented badge-waving could shorten when the blond's injury was not high on the list of gaping wounds. But they got a bed, which they both were currently seated. Waiting for the doctor to return. Danny was laid on the bed, the head raised fully. Steve was sat on the edge at his hip. But instead of propped against the bed, Danny was slumped against his strong back on his right side. His eye had already been seen to and was taped up with a bandage.

"Doc said it'll all be good in about a couple days." He patted the man's hip where his right arm was wound round his partner's torso. "You didn't permanently maim me, just temporarily."

"I wish you would stop saying that." Steve protested. "I feel bad enough about it without you pointing it out constantly and using words like _maim_." He gave a little shudder.

"Oh, no." Danny denied. "You do not get to guilt me about guilting you. It doesn't work like that. _I'm_ the one that got injured, you have to deal with the consequence. I've already forgiven you, but I'm not going to let it go that easily."

"Alright, gentlemen." The doctor pulled the curtain before Steve could reply. Danny straightened and Steve stood, facing the doctor at Danny's bedside. The doctor didn't even blink an eye. "I've got a few things before you go. I have eye drops for you. There's antibiotic drops to prevent infection. The other is a mild pain reliever with steroids to help with inflammation. I have extra bandages for you as well. Every time you use the drops, put a new bandage on. I want you to finish the antibiotic drops, but the pain reliever you can use at your own predilection. And I remind you—do **not** rub your eye. After you're finished the antibiotic drops, the bandages can come off. You may experience light sensitivity a few days afterward. Some headaches during and after. If you feel any intense eye pain, or have vision problems after the bandage is off, then you need to come back or make an appointment with an ophthalmologist. Got it?" he handed said things in his hands to Steve, who took them a little numbly. "You're free to go, Mr. Williams." He left the curtain open and departed.

"Did you get all that, SuperSEAL? Mr. It's-not-that-bad." Danny slid from the bed and turned to the man. "Steven." The blond snapped his finger in front of the taller man's nose. Steve blinked rapidly at him. "Let go. We've been here forever. I'm hungry and tired. I want to go home."

"Right." Steve cleared his throat. They left the E.R. for the Camaro. Steve stayed on Danny's left, protector of his current blind spot. "What do you want? We'll get it on the way," it was already dark out when they stepped outside.

"Pizza." Danny declared, it would require the least coordination and effort to consume. "And before you even start on what you swore to never speak on again—pizza that it fit for human consumption. Meaning—I don't want the Devil's Fruit sprinkled on top to ruin the whole thing. Capeesh?"

Steve gave a light chuckle and shook his head, closing the passenger door on Danny. "Whatever you want," he got into the driver's seat, the medical supplies tossed onto the backseat. "Anything else?" he pulled into traffic.

"I'm sure I'll think of something,"

Steve soon pulled into Danny's preferred pizza place (meaning the one that didn't completely suck) and went inside to order. Ten minutes later Danny had an extra large cheese pizza in his lap and they were back on the road. He could feel the heat of it burning through his pants against the tops of his thighs.

"Aht." Danny hissed at him as he recognized the streets Steve was taking.

"What?" Steve shot him a confused look before he turned the corner at the stop sign.

"Not _your_ place— **mine**." Danny told him, thumb at his own chest. "Turn it around, cowboy." He spun his finger.

"What do you mean? We always go to my place," he protested.

"You said whatever I want." Danny reminded him. "And I want to go back to my place."

"Why?" Steve shot him a suspicious look. "Did you succeed in stealing my bed when I wasn't looking this time around?"

"No, Steven, I did not steal your memory-foam mattress. I thought we agreed to let that go? It was a one-time incident, I wasn't in my clear mind."

"And _I_ thought-"

"There you go again with that thinking." Danny teased. "Not this time, buddy. Let's go."

Steve gave him a reproachful look at the red light. "Are you okay?"

"Am I o- Yes, I'm fine!" Danny rolled his eye(s), feeling a twinge in the left as it attempted the same circuit. "What? I must be losing it if I want to go to my apartment instead of your house? Get over yourself, Steve. You get to have me all to yourself either way, you possessive freak. Well, I get to be in control now."

Steve looked at him for a moment before he sighed. "Alright." When the light turned green, he did a U-turn right there in the intersection to the issue of discordant honking.

"Are you insane?!" Danny shouted at him, hand pressed flat against the Camaro roof, the other denting the edge of the pizza box. "You maimed me temporarily, now you're back onto trying to kill me in my own car? What is wrong with you?!"

"You still look alive to me," Steve replied wryly.

"Jus- drive like a rational human, alright? Your backside is going to be exposed long enough as it is, I can't afford to be on the desk any longer with your crazy antics in the field."

"My backside, huh?" Steve chuckled.

"Yeah, your stupid ass, Steve." Danny agreed. "Everyone else has sense enough to keep their distance, you just lured me in with that memory-foam. It's like quicksand."

Steve gave him a pout as he pulled into Danny's complex parking lot and parked. "And here I thought it was my winning personality and fantastic ass that kept you at my back."

Danny laughed. "We're back to you being delusional, I trust."

"Denial is a downward spiralling path, Danno." Steve informed him, grabbing the medicine from the backseat and the pie from Danny's lap before he left the car. Danny followed him, forced to stare at Steve's ass as he lead the way up the stairs to Danny's apartment.

The door immediately let into the small kitchen and Steve set the things on the small counterpace as Danny turned the lights on and bolted the door.

"Oh, look." Steve voiced, his arms stretched out on either side of him, his palms flat against the parallel walls. "My arms are stretched out and I can touch either side of the room."

"That's the entrance hall, jackass." Danny gripped. "It doesn't count." It was a step-up shoebox apartment. It was on the fifth floor with no elevator, but the living room was separate from the single bedroom. It had a closet. And contrary to Steve's perverse belief, his bathroom door opened all the way and there was nothing hazardous growing under the bathroom sink. He still had the pullout in the living room. He used it when Grace stayed over and she took the twin in the bedroom, that was if they just didn't stay over a Steve's. "And take your boots off, I don't need you tracking anything more than your negativity in. There's not enough room."

Steve snorted at that, but unlaced his boots and kicked them under the shallow shelved nook that was immediately across from the front door. Its shelves filled with framed photos of Grace, Danny's parents, a shot of Danny and all his siblings when they were younger, and shots of his _Ohana._ There was even one tucked in there of just him and Danny.

Danny loosened his tie knot and pulled it overhead, popping the second button as he hung it on the door knob.

Steve got out a couple of plates from the cupboard and Danny ducked into the fridge for a couple of Longboards. Pizza crowding their plates, longnecks in-hand, they supped in Danny's small living room. The springs of the folded pullout squeaked and popped under their combined weight, and they sunk low on the cushions that were filled with more air than stuffing. The TV was turned to something generic, not sports (to hard to follow with one eye), just a sitcom rerun. Two pairs of feet propped on the low coffee table (one in a pair of plain black socks, the other in low-toned stripes). Plates supported on chests, and beers wedged between their touching thighs down the middle (probably mixed them up, but it didn't much matter).

Steve kept shooting him glances in the beginning. "Don't even think about it," he warned quietly. His hand-eye coordination was fine, thank you very much!

"Wasn't thinkin' nothin'," Steve mumbled and turned back to the TV, stuffing his mouth with pizza. His stuffed cheeks didn't disguise his smirk.

They watched in silence as they finished eating, occasionally commenting at the TV. They put their empty plates and bottles on the coffee table at nearly the same time.

"That was so much cheese," Steve groaned, slouching down further into the unsupported pullout, causing Danny to slump into his side due to causality. "Gonna back me up."

Danny gave a snort of laughter, shifting just slightly to lay his right cheek on Steve's shoulder comfortably. "Better than it making you gassy. 'Cause if you are, you're not getting in bed with me. You can take the pullout." It was an unsaid fact that Steve was spending the night.

"Don't worry," Steve turned it around, because there was no way he was sleeping on this foldable hell-bed. "I'll just keep it contained under the blanket."

"Yeah, 'cause that worked out so well last time." He returned sarcastically. "Nearly killed me."

"You're exaggerating."

Danny shook his head against the man's shoulder. "Let's just not, okay? Just hold it in,"

"That can't be good for you." He remarked.

"It's fine. We've lasted this long with very few incidents. Can we just keep it that way? We don't need to know _everything_ about each other, least of all that."

"But I _want_ to know everything, Danno."

"That's just your control-freak insecurities talking, babe. We can't possible know everything about each other," he reasoned, "It's impossible. There are things called boundaries, remember? Those tricky things that keep people from over-stepping."

"Boundaries are just things to be broken," Steve told him.

"I think you mean the saying: _rules are meant to be broken_." The blond corrected. "Boundaries are there for a reason, just like rules. You can't just blow through them with those bombs you like to build."

"Same difference." Steve dismissed.

"Yes, they _are_ very different." Danny told him. "I think it's concerning that I even have to tell you this." He took a deep breath, rubbing a finger up the bridge of his nose, his right eye closed briefly. He could feel the localized pain reliever starting to wear. "Look. I love you, buddy. But I don't think I could handle knowing every little thing about you. It'd be too much. You're enough to handle already."

"Thanks," he replied tartly, turning his head away.

"Steve," Danny raised his head, his hand pressed flat on the brunette's chest. "Don't be like that. It's not like _that_ , and you know it, Steven.

"I'm not even sure _I_ know everything about myself. It wouldn't matter anyway. Things change all the time, people change. There's always something new, something different. That's the point. You can't just know _every one thing_ , because there's never just _one thing_."

Steve finally looked at him, the corner of his lips tight, his brow wrinkled in his misgivings.

"I'm sure you think it's a great idea to know everything. That if you do, you can control everything. Stop anything bad from every happening; to our _Ohana,_ to innocents. But the world just doesn't work like that, babe. Besides," he teased, "It'd break that goofy brain of yours." He poked a finger that the man's forehead. "And I've just been getting the hang of it as it is, no need to go changing now."

Steve caught Danny's hand, tangling their fingers as he brought it down onto his lap. A pleased smile on his lips. "You think I'm perfect just the way I am?"

"I never said _perfect_ ," Danny corrected slyly. "But I never said I was either. But together, I'm pretty sure we make a pretty great person."

Steve gave him a thousand-watt grin. "You just announced your utter, dying love for me—you just proposed." Steve told him, just like Danny did when the brunette had said he liked to hear Danny talk. He chuckled, squeezing his partner's hand. "Now you can't leave me,"

"Who said I was going anywhere?" Danny inquired. Then he stood from the couch with a light grunt, anchored from going any further by their tangled fingers. He could feel Steve get tense and rigid, ready to yank Danny back to him at a moments notice. Danny looked back down at him with a fond blue eye. "Easy, Suprman. I'm not _leaving._ I'm full, it's late. Put the pieces together, huh?" he tugged the man's hand. "Come on, Nurse Ratchet. You can help me with my drops."

Steve nodded and stood, but didn't release Danny's hand until they got to the kitchen. Steve washed his hands as Danny got the drops from the paper bag and read the instructions out loud. Danny leaned against the counter and closed his right eye as Steve pealed the bandage away, the tape pulling a little at the hairs of his eyebrow. Danny clenched his fist, shoving it in his pocket and resisted the urge to rub at his exposed aching, gritty eye.

Steve's eyes tightened as he was again face-to-face with the injury that he had caused. Despite him telling Danny that it wasn't his fault, it was an accident, which he rationally knew—but unrationally, it was killing him. It didn't matter. He had done this. He had maimed Danno!

"Hey," Danny murmured, opening his right eye and squeezing Steve's wrist, breaking his guilty fixation. "Get out of your head. It's a dangerous place—even for you." He joked. He rubbed his hand up the man's bare arm, and squeezed the nape of his neck. "It was an accident, you know that. A stupid one, granted. But still. You're always racked with guilt, no matter what it was. You break out into sweats if you hand me paper and I get a paper cut. Babe, you do that, it's a downward spiralling road." He gave a little smirk.

Steve gave his head a little shake and Danny a brief smile. It wasn't about him. He was here to take care of Danno.

Taking out a wipe from the little package, he had Danny tilt his head back. The overhead kitchen light was the brighter than the lamp in the living room, but wasn't blinding though it made his left eye water anyway. Left palm gently on his forehead like back at the Palace, Steve gently wiped over Danny's eye, clearing away the gunk before he returned with the drops. It was puffy around Danny's eye, the eye itself was irritated, with some broken blood vessels. He did two drops of the antibiotic drops, then two of the pain relievers to take Danny through the night and into the morning. Clearing away any excess with a tissue, he taped a fresh bandage around Danny's eye.

"All done," Steve announced, his hand stroked over the blond's lax hair after the long day, and planted a peck amongst the locks.

"Thanks, buddy." Danny patted his partner's chest as he squeezed passed to head for the bathroom. The arousal of pain that the treatment to his eye was already fading as the pain reliever drops worked fast. By the time he was done relieving himself in the bathroom, Steve was finished tidying up from their late supper by at least putting their plates in the sink and empty Longboards in the recycling and joined him there.

Danny handed him a unopened spar toothbrush that he found. "Thanks,"

Because yes, he and Steve were close, but this was where boundaries came in because they were not going to share a toothbrush! Danny drew a line at that. It was totally unsanitary and gross. Which was why Danny had his own toothbrush in the cup in Steve's bathroom.

The detective was sure that this was actually the first time that Steve was spending the night in his apartment. Their platonic bed partnership was spent 99.999% at the McGarrett Home, cuddled on that damn fantastic memory-foam mattress that begged to be slept on. This, now, was that missing .001%.

They brushed side-by-side in front of the sink. His bathroom was definitely smaller than Steve's, but they were both righties so there wasn't an elbow war, that, knowing them, would have escalated pretty quick. Finished, Danny left Steve the bathroom to do the things that they did not need to ever do together, and got ready for bed.

He was already stripped to his boxers (and socks. Cold feet, remember?) when Steve walked in, already pulling his tee overhead. "Aw!" Steve exclaimed in realisation, hazel-grey gaze giving Danny the once over. "I get it now," Danny gave him a confused look. "Why you wanted to come to your place instead of mine."

Danny paused in pulling back the covers and raised his right brow at him ('cause he could do that; just don't ask to lift his left brow singularly. It was one of the few bumps in his expressive highway). "This outta be good. Do tell, professor."

"This." Steve simply said smugly, tossing his shirt onto the closed hamper.

"This?" The confusion was back.

"Me." Steve told him. "Like this." He unzipped his cargo pants and kicked them off in perfect aim to join his shirt on the hamper. "I have no clothes here, so I've nothing else to sleep in." He explained, stepping onto the toes of his socks and pulling them off hands-free. "Very smooth play, detective." He winked.

Danny looked at him for a single beat—then burst out laughing. "You can't be serious?" one hand crossed over his ribs, the other on his knee. "Oh, Smooth Dog, I'm at you're mercy, you caught me out. Whatever shall I do?" he straightened with a big grin, chuckling to find Steve on the other side of the bed, pouting at him. "I didn't think you could be funny, babe. You must have overridden your programming. It was good."

Steve grumbled back in response, standing there petulant in nothing but a pair of boxer-briefs.

"Oh, come on, Steve." Danny flapped a dismissive hand at him. Teasing, "Pretty sure I don't have to be cunning—you're an easy lay."

Steve gave him a gasp, hand over his bare-chested heart. "And after all I did to preserve your chastity?"

"Beggars can't be choosers." He winked. "It was a one time offer, babe. Sorry."

"If I'd known that..." he uttered under his breath conspiratorially.

"Right." Danny snorted. "Alright, that solves it." He gave a single clap. "Put your pants back on-"

"What?" Steve stopped, all previous joking dropped like a deadweight. Danny was really kicking him out of bed? "But their uncomfortable to sleep in."

"I meant metaphorically, goof." He gave a soft laugh, finally getting under the covers. "You're really sensitive tonight, aren't you?" he patted the empty space behind him on his right side. "Now turn off the light and get into bed already."

Steve inhaled deeply but Danny interrupted the McGarrett-reprimand, which was just a Steve-version of a Danny-rant. "Get in this bed right now, young man," Danny pointed a strict finger at the bed, pulling out his one day age superiority, "Before I put you on the pullout for real." The finger directed back towards the living room.

"You can be really mean sometimes, you know." He mumbled, but turned off the bedroom light. Danny's bandage glowed against the faint glow of the alarm clock. Steve found the bed easily and jumped in before Danny could change his mind for real, because once he was in, he wasn't leaving till he had too.

The twin definitely wasn't his memory-foam, but it was definitely better than sleeping without Danny. It was a crowded affair, but after a minute of shifting in the muted darkness, the two men were comfortably notched together, warm skin-on-skin contact a security not a problem.

"Ice cream!" Danny suddenly said in the silence (no need for his Soothing Jersey Sounds track), as Steve was on the edge of sleep, like the blond seemed to have a sense for.

"What?" Steve mumbled into the man's skin.

"I want ice cream,"

"Now?" Steve wondered. He honestly had _no plans_ of moving right now. Not pressed against Danny's right side, limbs in octopus mode; left leg thrown over Danny's right, his lower leg fitted perfect between his partner's two, arm circled around his furred midsection, and head pillowed on the man's broad shoulder.

"No, not now. I just brushed my teeth, I'm not an animal like you. But I want it. Tomorrow." He declared.

"Alright. I'll get you ice cream in bed tomorrow, promise."

Danny settled back down with a content sigh, his fingers pushed into the brunette's short hair, massaging his scalp with his fingertips and lulling the man back into sleep.

 **-xH50x-**

Danny wasn't sure if it was a the nearby brief clinking, or the subconsciously realized of absence of warmth and comfort pressed against his side that lifted the heavy blanket of sleep from his mind, but left the momentary fog of it. He had a dry mouth, and something stiff that felt like it was covering half his face. He rose his hand to wipe the sleep away with force and instead felt a familiar hand intercept his.

"Huh?" that at least blew the fog away and he opened his eyes—or at least he managed to crack his right eye. _Good enough_. His left ached and throbbed. He felt the bed shift and turned his head on the pillow to find his clothed partner on his stomach, propped up on his elbows. "Steve."

"Hey, buddy." Steve murmured, squeezing his hand. "Got you something."

Danny perked up at that. "You did?"

Steve gave him a bashful grin. "As promised—ice cream when you woke up."

"Ah, _now_ I remember." He reached up and with careful fingers felt the edge of the bandage over his eye.

Steve's earlier expression swan instantly with guilt and self-reproach. "Danny-"

"We've been over this, babe. It was an accident." Danny reached up and placed a warm hand at the juncture of shoulder and neck, his thumb caressing the sensitive skin of his throat. Steve hunched his shoulders for a brief moment, his eyes squeezed closed and nuzzled his cheek against his best-friend's hand. "I'll be good to go in a couple days and you can longingly stare into my bright blue eyes as long as you want again, buddy." He shot him a mischievous grin when the man opened his eyes again. "Now, what was it you were saying about ice cream in bed?" he looked at the man expectantly.

Steve grinned at him, shifting to his cargo-clad knees and reached for the nightstand. He came back with a ceramic green bowl in hand, and the thing accountable for the earlier clinking. "You're favourite. I ran by the corner store when I got up."

Danny propped the pillows up behind him, elevating him into a reclining, seated position. Steve set the bowl on the raised blanket over his partner's bare chest to negate the cold that seeped through the bowl.

"Breakfast of Champions!" Danny picked up the spoon and excitedly took a large spoonful.

"Are you sure-" Steve started, but Danny already craned his neck and took the contents into the warm pallet of his mouth.

"Mm!" Danny cried in protest as it instantly made his brain ache with cold. He powered through, swallowing the frozen cream, chocolate and caramel. His face contorted as he tried to make the brain freeze fade faster by thinking of hot things; like the sun or soup. It didn't help much. "Christ! That'll wake you up!" he stuck the spoon back into the ice cream. Ice cream was definitely not for the recently woken over-zealous.

He licked his lips and looked at Steve who had been uniquely quiet through the whole event to find the very man red-faced as he valiantly attempted to hold in his laughter. "Thanks for the attempt," Danny told him dryly, "But you should relinquish if you don't want your brain to bleed out your ears."

Steve's watering eyes shone with gratitude and glee. His first gasping breath was interrupted with gut splitting laughter. Danny watched the man in fond amusement, cold seeping through the blanket on his chest as the ice cream slowly melted, as the usually guarded SEAL looked the free innocent child in his gut-splitting laughter.

Danny's bed shook so much with it that one might have thought it was equipped with Magic Fingers instead of a laughing Neanderthal. He was sure his response would be the same if their rolls had been reversed.

Finally, Steve collapsed in an exhausted, breathless weight across Danny's legs, panting in an attempt to gain his breath back again. "Danno!" he wiped the tears of laughter from his cheeks, grinning at the blond.

"I did that to make you feel better," Danny said with the straightest face the had Steve snickering. "Feel better?" he patted the man's head like he was a dog flopped on his lap. He took up the spoon again, and with more consideration for portions, started to eat his breakfast ice cream. "You gonna move any time soon, babe?" he wiggled his legs. "I'm falling asleep here."

Steve gave him Pout-y Face. "But I'm comfortable." Just to prove his point, he laid his head down on folded arms. Danny gave him a squinty-eyed look, mouth full of ice cream. Steve let out a put-upon sign through raspberry lips, but did as the blond requested and shifted.

Danny shifted his legs and wiggled the tingles from his toes. He raised his brows (his left pulling his ache-y eye) at his best-friend as when all his shifting was all said and done, Steve was still on his stomach—and laid between the detective's legs, head pillowed on the man's lap.

"Huh." Danny remarked, then went back to eating his presented ice cream.

A few minutes later, down to the last few spoons, Steve made a non-committal noise that drew the Jersey native's attention. Danny looked down at the man to see Steve's head raised and an expectant look on his face.

Danny's brow wrinkled. "Thanks...?" he asked in confusion, not sure what the other man wanted.

Steve gave him a look that clearly said that was not what he had been looking for. Then, he glanced a pointed look at the bowl—and opened his mouth expectantly.

Danny stared. "Re-" his gaze flicked to the sweating bowl at the dip of his chest. He shot a searching look at his partner in return, he got dark brows flicked in confirmation. " _Really?"_ he blurted in genuine surprise. "Not worried about gastric bypass or something?" he teased. "Blow your ass right up."

Steve smirked. "It'll just enhance your view when we breach."

Danny laughed. "You're incorrigible!"

"You're the one that keeps bringing up my ass, Danno."

"Funny." Danny agreed. Then stared at the melted ice cream for a second before shrugging his shoulders. "What the hell? This wouldn't be the weirdest thing we've done by far."

And he fed Steve the remainder of his Breakfast for Champions. And if the ice cream put the delicate man in a sugar coma, then due to injury Chin and Kono would just have to man Iolani Palace.

[end]

* * *

 **HAWAII . FIVE - 0**

 _Wow, that conversation took a very dramatic and serious turn from breaking-wind to they were the best parts of each other. Hoped you like it. Please review. And thanks for reading._

y


End file.
